The "45-Second Tax": Why Copy-Pasting to ChatGPT is Killing Your Flow

You think you are fast. You have Cmd+Tab mastered. But you are losing more time than you realize.

We call it the 45-Second Tax.

The Anatomy of a Distraction

Let's break down what actually happens when you want AI to fix a simple email:

1. Switch tab to Chrome.
2. Open OpenAI / ChatGPT.
3. Paste your text.
4. Write a prompt ("Fix grammar").
5. Wait for the stream...
6. Copy the result.
7. Switch back to email.
8. Paste.
9. Re-format the broken bullet points.

That is 45 seconds of friction for a 5-second task. And that’s just the mechanical time.

The "Flow State" Science

The real cost is mental. Research shows that once you context-switch, it can take up to 23 minutes to get back into deep focus. You didn't just fix a typo; you broke your coding flow.

The Hard Way

You could try to set up complex Python scripts or use bloated "AI Wrapper" apps that eat 500MB of RAM just to sit in your tray. But that's just trading one friction for another.

The Smart Way: Zero-Context Switching

Rephrase brings the AI directly to your text cursor.

1. Highlight text in any app (VS Code, Terminal, Slack).
2. Hit your custom hotkey (e.g., Cmd + .).
3. Done.

The text transforms instantly, in-place. No tabs. No copy-paste. No formatting loss.

• Developers: Fix comments or write documentation inside VS Code.
• Founders: Polish pitch emails inside Superhuman.
• Managers: Soften feedback inside Slack.

Save 30 minutes a day. Stop paying the tax.

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